National Organization for Women | New York City

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NOW-NYC gives women a powerful voice. As the largest NOW chapter in the country, they play a key role in shaping the debate on the issues that impact women, creating policies, and holding government and businesses accountable to the women of New York.

The National Organization for Women – New York City (NOW-NYC) advocates for the women and girls of New York. We aim to defend reproductive rights, create economic equality, promote women’s leadership, and end discrimination and violence against women.

Women’s Justice NOW is our charitable partner organization, supporting our public education and outreach efforts and providing legal advocacy and referrals to women in need.

NOW-NYC and Women’s Justice NOW seek an Executive Assistant to support our work. This position reports directly to the President.

Primary responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

Manage the President’s calendar by scheduling meetings, calls and travel.

Complete bookkeeping duties for multiple bank accounts, including payment of bills, data entry in QuickBooks accounting software, and making bank deposits; work in conjunction with the Treasurer to complete financial reports for quarterly board meetings.

Qualifications:

Professional experience in administrative work preferred.

A demonstrated commitment to women’s rights and the mission of NOW-NYC and Women’s Justice NOW.

We’re looking for someone with these characteristics:

Ability to take initiative in a fast-paced environment, prioritize and handle a variety of projects simultaneously.

Excellent written and oral communications skills.

Strong organizational skills and fine attention to detail.

Ability to work independently with minimal direction.

Ability to maintain a calm demeanor when under pressure and when faced with changing circumstances.

Flexible self-starter who is proactive, exhibits a high degree of professionalism, is committed to completing work on a timely basis, and works well with a small, nimble team.

Salary commensurate with experience. Benefits include health insurance and generous time off policy, including 3 weeks’ vacation.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Only those selected for interviews will be contacted. No phone calls, please.

Application Instructions:

To apply, please submit a resume along with a cover letter detailing your qualifications and the reason(s) for your interest in this specific position to: hiring@nownyc.org. You may address your application to Sonia Ossorio, NOW-NYC President.

NOW-NYC is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from people of any race or ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and from any underrepresented groups.

NEW YORK, NY – March 15, 2018 – Today, the National Organization for Women-New York (NOW-NY) announced their endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for Governor and Kathy Hochul for Lieutenant Governor of New York State. As the first major women’s endorsement, Sonia Ossorio, president of NOW-NY commended the Governor for his strong record of making women’s rights a top priority of his agenda.

“This was an easy decision for our NOW chapter leaders across the state. Year in and year out Governor Cuomo has put women’s rights front and center,” Ossorio said. “At a time when our rights are under attack at the federal level, we have in Governor Cuomo a leader who works tirelessly to drive forward progress here in New York.”

Governor Cuomo is building a legacy of real change for the women and girls of New York: raising the minimum wage of which women make up two-thirds of earners; enacting paid family leave; making it harder to discriminate against pregnant workers; and paving a path for young New Yorkers to earn tuition-free four-year degrees.

“Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul has traversed the state to meet New Yorkers and understand their lives and struggles and has a fundamental understanding of the issues women face. We’re proud to support her,” Ossorio said.

Using a humans rights lens, Governor Cuomo expanded marriage rights for same-sex couples and closed loopholes that end child marriage. He launched the Enough is Enough initiative which became the most aggressive policy in the nation to reduce sexual assault on campus.

In the weeks and months ahead, Governor Cuomo will be working to push through an ambitious women’s agenda to secure abortion rights, combat workplace sexual harassment, and keep firearms out of the hands of abusers.

“Governor Cuomo is making changes that have a real impact. Consistently he has worked to end gender-based discrimination and improve the economic outlook for women and their families,” Ossorio said.

—

The National Organization for Women – New York (NOW-NY) advocates for the women and girls of New York, by defending reproductive rights, fighting economic inequality and aiming to end discrimination and violence against women and girls.

Join us for the kick-off of our Rise Up Act NOW series, “Derailing the Trump Agenda: Protecting our Rights, Health, Environment and Democracy,” an interactive, thought-provoking discussion with civil rights leaders, advocates, and experts with tips on how to proactively defend our rights and our democracy – before it’s too late.

We will discuss some sobering setbacks and policy changes which are being quickly and quietly enacted under the Trump administration with little media attention – from lifting bans on toxic pesticides to stacking the federal appeals courts with record numbers of young, white, male, anti-choice judges. We will also talk about the many ways that citizens and institutions are trying to protect our liberty.

As Trump’s presidency is yielding dangerous results – for women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, the disabled, immigrants, and families – we are seeing an unprecedented surge in civic engagement and a dynamic movement leading the resistance. The Trump administration’s attempts to divide Americans with bigotry and hatred have sparked a unified movement to push for transformative changes and equality for all.

This event promises to be an empowering conversation about the state of women and civil rights in our nation today.

Moderator: Sonia Ossorio, President of the National Organization for Women-NYC

More speakers to be announced soon.

This 3-part Rise Up Act NOW series of public education events focuses on the Trump administration and the impact its agenda is having on our civil liberties and our democracy. The series will explore attacks on our civil rights, the environment, and threats to our voting rights and our election through the lens of gender and equality. This series cuts through the news tsunami to get the facts and to learn how to resist NOW.

As the nation keeps returning to the debate over gun control in light of the recent tragedy, there is a bill that has been quietly moving through the Capitol that should concern us greatly, because things are potentially about to get a lot worse. Already passed by 231 members of the House and now in the Senate, gun lobbyists are making their rounds: the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 (H.R. 38/S.446) will enable individuals who are allowed to carry a concealed gun in their own state, to carry that gun anywhere else in the country, including right here in New York.

New York already has the strongest gun safety laws in the country, and Governor Cuomo now has his sights set on getting even tougher on domestic violence batterers by closing the loophole that allows batterers with felony convictions and orders of protections against them to still own some types of firearms, such as, long guns, rifles and shotguns. Citing the documented link between intimate partner violence and lethal gun violence, the Governor is also aiming to keep firearms out of the hands of men who are convicted of misdemeanor offenses involving domestic violence.

Indeed, every month 50 women are shot to death, leaving many more children motherless and nearly 1 million women alive today have been shot, or shot at, by an intimate partner.

The link between acts of domestic violence and acts of mass shootings are also well documented. An Everytown for Gun Safety analysis of every identifiable mass shooting — which are defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed by guns — between 2009 and 2016, found that in 85 of those 156 incidents (54%), the shooter killed a current or former intimate partner or other family member as part of or before going on a killing spree.

While New York has been taking action, our federal government has not. New York’s gun safety laws will mean very little if the NRA and Donald Trump get their way, and pass a federal law that forces every state to honor other states’ concealed carry privileges. That translates into nearly 16 million people in the US who have obtained conceal carry permits, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center. That doesn’t even account for the fourteen states don’t even require a permit to carry a concealed weapon in public, including neighboring Vermont and New Hampshire.

Concealed Carry Reciprocity would mean that domestic abusers, convicted stalkers, and violent offenders from outside New York will be free to ignore the laws of our state.

The last thing New Yorkers expect is to be on the subway platform or at Yankee Stadium and see a civilian with a gun tucked in their side. But the truth is, this can become reality if we don’t act. It’s about to be the Wild Wild West right here in our own backyard.

We must take action. Call your U.S. Senators in New York, and make sure they hear from you on this issue. Get your friends and family to reach every Senator on the Judiciary Committee especially in Iowa, California, Louisiana, North Carolina, Vermont, Utah, South Carolina, Texas, Nebraska, Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, and New Jersey. Or go to nownyc.org for a pre-drafted tweet, letter, or script to get the word out.

With a President who can barely muster a response to the severity and breadth of domestic violence and who has accepted more than $11 million in campaign contributions from the NRA, it’s going to take the collective voices of women, and the public, to finally put an end to the devastation caused by gun violence. How many more shattered lives and families and communities do we need to witness before each and every one of us takes action?

A GOP bill allowing concealed guns in all 50 states has passed the House! Call the Senate NOW and tell them to vote “no” to the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 (S.446). A call script and sample tweets can be found below!

NOW-NY has been working with Governor Cuomo to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers – and this dangerous bill extends the jurisdiction of state gun permits across state lines. So if you are allowed to carry a concealed weapon in your home state, you would be allowed to carry it in all of them. NOW-NY is concerned about the impact this legislation will have on sufferers of domestic violence. Since women are 5x more likely to be killed by an abusive partner who has access to a firearm, this bill would have deadly consequences for women and children in the US.

We need#GunReformNOW because women are 5x more likely to be killed by an abusive partner with access to a firearm.

We need#GunReformNOW because the presence of gun in a DV situation increases risk of homicide for women by 500%

Use this sample call script:

“Hello. My name is (your first and last name) and I’m calling from (city and zip code). I don’t need a response. I’m calling in regards to S.446, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. This bill will be devastating to the safety of all New Yorkers, particularly women and children. I want to encourage the Senator to vote “no” on the Concealed Carry Reciprocity bill. Thank you.”

2. Contact the Judiciary Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding hearings on this bill and need to hear from you NOW. For an even more impactful message, have your friends and family in the following states reach out to their Congressional Representatives on the Judiciary Committee. Make sure to send them the sample script and the pre-drafted tweets for them to use as well.

This bill will also allow guns on school property, clearly stating that an individual “is not subject to the federal prohibition on possessing a firearm in a school zone.”

Coupled with the fact that a report by the Anti-Defamation League cites an increase in violent extremist hate crimes in 2017, the timing of this bill could not be worse for the American public. In fact, murders committed by white supremacists doubled this past year, making 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence since 1970.

Critics are also raising concerns about how city and state gun control laws will be impacted. Since the NRA is backing this legislation and Trump is an avid supporter – thanks to their $30 million donation to his election campaign – it appears that opponents to gun control laws are winning the battle.

This is not just a women’s issue; it’s a national issue. To end gun violence in our county, we must come together and act NOW!

February 11, 2018 – “The Weinstein Companies enabled Harvey Weinstein to use his position and clout to prey on girls and women for years, unchecked. Allowing the sale of this company without forcing its leadership to answer for its complicity and failure to protect women from abuse would be an affront to the women of Hollywood and every working woman. To get beyond this one predator, victims must be heard and management must be held accountable. Attorney General Schneiderman has stepped up to draw the line. Anything less would be a travesty of justice.”

– Sonia Ossorio, President of the National Organization for Women – New York

NOW-NY is calling on women and men who currently and previously worked in government in Albany and throughout the state to speak out about their personal experiences with sexual harassment or assault while on the job through our new hotline at 518-362-7857 or submitting their story online at nownys.org.

This fall, NOW-NY launched a state-wide hotline for government employees to report sexual harassment in response to the wave of complaints coming out through the #MeToo movement and the lack of recourse available to survivors. There must be accountability for our elected leaders and those in positions of power so that sexual abuse, harassment, and assault are handled immediately and appropriately – not with secret agreements in forced arbitrations and with payoffs made with taxpayer funds.

For those of you in the New York City metropolitan area, we will soon be re-instigating our monthly Workplace Harassment Legal Clinics to provide free legal counseling to those in need. To get signed up for the next session, email us contact@nownyc.org for more information.

NOW-NYC proudly co-sponsored and led more than one hundred activists to the Women’s March NYC on January 20th to show the Trump administration that we are still resisting and persisting, joining hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, and millions across the US and the world. 2018 marks a critical year for women and families – with the mid-term elections, the current DACA crisis, Trump’s controversial policy changes, attacks on women’s health and more.

On #WeekendofWomen, we saw a renewed sense of feminist activism. NOW-NYC recognizes the significance of 2018 for civil rights and women’s equality – and the timing of #MeToo and the mobilization of social justice allies is quite powerful. We look forward to a year of resistance and we intend to keep the momentum going.

We believe this year, women will make herstory. More women are running for office than ever before and need our support to get out the vote. Join NOW-NYC this year to campaign for strong, feminist leaders and lobby for progressive state and national legislation. Let’s make 2018 the Year of Women!

We kicked off the year with our Anti-Trafficking Lobby Day, taking a hundred activists to DC to lobby Congress in support of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) – and that was just the beginning. This spring, we invite you to join us on our Lobby Day to Albany to pass the Child Victims Act and other important New York state legislation.

Join a Fight Back NOW Team to mobilize with NOW activists in your district to create progressive change and elect pro-woman leaders.

Women Rally Near Prospect Park’s Grand Army Plaza
Call on NYPD to Commit More Resources to Investigating Sexual Assault

January 15, 2018 – Brooklyn, NY – NOW-NYC and sexual assault survivors joined together on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to demand their civil rights for better treatment of rape victims; to call for the strengthening of investigative techniques and resources dedicated to sexual assault by the NYPD; and to stand up for a courageous rape survivor who waited more than two decades for justice.

“An apology isn’t enough, this predator went on to terrorize five more women. The reality is we haven’t made enough progress. We see firsthand how survivors still face a hostile police force and court system. Outdated attitudes about victims continue to persist in our criminal justice system and the media today,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women – New York.

Following her reports to the police, the Prospect Park survivor was called a liar by some police officials and a NY Daily News columnist who continued to publish columns questioning her credibility—even in the face of growing evidence supporting her story. Recently identified through DNA, the serial predator responsible for her attack is currently serving 75 years to life for four additional rapes and one attempted rape that happened after the Prospect Park rape.

Ossorio said, “It has been more than twenty years since this survivor was publicly maligned, and the genuine opportunity to catch her rapist before he went on to attack five more women was forever lost. Although the #MeToo shift is a significant step in the right direction, we need to lift our voices to demand change in our workplaces and in our justice system.”

Since New York State didn’t repeal its statute of limitations on rape until 2006, the Prospect Park survivor is unable to bring her own case against the perpetrator.

The group credited Detective Sarah Mathers, Detective Andrea Sorrentino, Sergeant Keri Thompson, and Deputy Chief Michael Osgood, as well as Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce and Commissioner James O’Neill for pushing the re-investigation of this case in support of the victim who, herself, made it clear that she was tremendously grateful to everyone who fought for its closure. But the group also noted that the victim, in a statement to the New York Times, called for reforms including better training of police, DNA testing in cold cases, and better treatment of sex crime victims; she emphasized that “stories of assault are still discounted; cases are not vigorously prosecuted.”

“The Prospect Park Survivor, after an unimaginable ordeal, did everything in her power to help apprehend her attacker and protect other women,” said Jane Manning, NOW-NYC’s director of advocacy. “That’s what courage looks like. We can all learn something from her determination to put a predator in prison where he belongs. The investigators who solved her case are heroes, but the foremost hero of this story is Jane Doe.”

NOW-NYC, along with its members and survivor-advocates called for additional restitution for this survivor and others like her. Specifically, the group called on the NYPD to:

· Fully explain and investigate why some of its officers slandered this rape victim in the media, compounding her suffering and trauma to an unimaginable degree; to identify all those officers who did so; and to hold all of them to account for the irreparable harm they caused.

· Increase the size of the Special Victims division, and require a higher level of training for SVU officers

· Improve the training for frontline cops on how best to treat victims

· Commit to utilizing updated technologies to close more cold cases like this one and ensure perpetrators are stopped before they attack again.

In addition, the group called for a public apology from the New York Daily News for allowing this victim to be slandered in its pages and a promise to the public of a commitment to cover stories about sexual assault with thorough investigations and respect for victims.

NOW-NYC advocates for the women and girls of New York, by defending reproductive rights, fighting economic inequality, and ending violence & discrimination against women.